SOCIAL STUDIES NOTES: GRADE 8
CHAPTER 7 CREATING THE CONSTITUTION: 1776-1790
Section 1: Governing a New Nation
I. Government by the States
-Leaders of the new nation remembered what they hated about British rule. They had seen how the king and Parliament in faraway England had exerted power over elected colonial legislatures. Americans sought instead to create a republic in which the states had more power than the central government.
-As the Continental Congress began moving toward independence in 1776, leaders in individual states began creating governments. Eleven of the thirteen states wrote new constitutions to support their government.
-The other two states—Rhode Island and Connecticut—kept using their colonial charters. However, they removed all references to the British king.
-Colonists had been unhappy with governors appointed by the British Crown. Thus, new constitutions minimized the power of state governors, and instead they gave most power to state legislatures elected by the people.
-The governor served as the state’s chief executive. They appointed key state officials, but usually the legislature had to approve the appointments.
-The new constitutions allowed more people to vote than in colonial times. Nonetheless, all but a few states barred African Americans from voting. New Jersey allowed some women to vote until 1807, but women could not vote in any other state.
-In order to vote, white males had to be 21 or older, and, in most states, they also had to own a certain amount of property.
-Virginia was the first state to include a bill of rights in its constitution. Virginia’s list included freedom of the press and the right to trial by jury, and it also barred “cruel and unusual punishments.” The final clause guaranteed freedom of religion.
-Many other states followed Virginia’s lead. The New York and Massachusetts’ constitutions also included freedom of religion in their bill of rights.
II. The Articles of Confederation
-While the states were writing their own constitutions, the Continental Congress created a plan for the nation as a whole. It was called the Articles of Confederation. Congress adopted the Articles in 1777.
-Instead of having three branches of government like those of most states, the government under the Articles had just one branch-a one- house legislature called Congress.
-Within Congress, all states would be equal and each had a single vote. Moreover, for the most important matters, nine states had to agree before a law could go into effect.
-The Articles provided for a limited central government.
-Most power remained in the hands of the states. Congress could not regulate trade or collect taxes. Instead, it had to ask the states for the money it needed.
-Congress could deal with foreign nations and with Native Americans outside the 13 states. It could make laws, declare war, coin or borrow money, and run a postal service.
-However, the national government had no power to enforce the laws it made. For that, it depended on the states.
III. Settling the Western Lands
-The Articles had to be approved by all 13 states. But some states would not give their approval until other states dropped their claims to vast areas of land west of the Appalachian Mountains. It took years to get all the states to give up their claims to western lands. In 1781, Virginia was the final state to agree. Only then did Maryland approve the Articles of Confederation, the final state to do so.
-The western lands that the states had given up were turned over to the national government. It was sold off, piece by piece, to private companies seeking to develop western settlements.
-Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, surveyors were to divide public lands into townships, 6 miles on each side. Land would be sold for no less than $1 an acre.
-Within each township, one section was set aside to support schools. This reflected the belief of the nation’s leaders that democracy depended on education.
-Thomas Jefferson later wrote: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
-Investors were eager to buy land in the Northwest Territory, north of the Ohio River. In response, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It guaranteed basic rights for settlers and banned slavery there.
-The Northwest Ordinance set a three-step process for admitting new states. In time, five states-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin-were carved out of the Northwest Territory.
IV. Growing Problems
-Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States had many successes. It waged a successful war for independence, negotiated a peace treaty with Great Britain, and set up rules for settling new territories.
-But the United States faced growing problems during the 1780s. Many Americans concluded that the Articles did not give the government enough power to solve these problems.
-Under the Articles, each state set its own trade policy. Each state tried to help its own farmers and manufacturers by setting taxes on goods brought in from other states. This practice discouraged trade among the states.
-In addition, each state printed its own money, making trade between states harder.
-Another problem grew from the fact that the central government did not have the power to tax. As a result, there was little money to run the government. The situation grew more desperate every year.
-Because the United States seemed to be weak, powerful nations viewed it with scorn. British troops continued to occupy forts in the Northwest Territory, although the peace treaty required that the forts be turned over to the United States.
-The Spanish, who controlled New Orleans, refused to let Americans ship products down the Mississippi River. Therefore, western farmers had to send products along the rugged trails over the Appalachian Mountains, which was far more costly.
-In the mid-1780s, a severe economic depression hit the United States. As the depression deepened, there was widespread despair and anger.
-The depression hit farmers in Massachusetts especially hard. As crop prices declined, many were unable to pay their taxes. The state government then began seizing some farms and selling them in order to get the back taxes.
-In August 1786, a former Revolutionary War captain named Daniel Shays led an uprising of about 1,000 Massachusetts’ farmers. When the farmers tried to seize arms from a state warehouse, the state called out the militia. Shays and other leaders were arrested.
-Although Shays’ Rebellion fizzled, it had frightened some leading Americans. They believed that a stronger central government would protect against popular unrest.
-In response, Congress asked the states to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Their task was to revise the Articles of Confederation.
Section 2: The Constitutional Convention
I. The Constitutional Convention Begins
-Members of the convention did not have the authority to “form some new system of government.” Congress had called the meeting “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.” However, many delegates argued that revising the Articles would not be enough.
-Early on, the delegates voted to keep their debates secret.
-In all, 55 delegates from 12 states took part in the convention. Only Rhode Island did not send any representation.
-George Washington was quickly voted president of the convention.
-James Madison took careful notes on the meetings. Published after his death. Madison’s notes became a rich source of historical information.
II. The Virginia Plan
-On the third day of the convention, Edmund Randolph of Virginia proposed a plan for a new, strong central government. James Madison was the principle author of this Virginia Plan.
-The Virginia plan called for the central government to have three separate branches. Congress would continue to be the legislative branch. But two additional branches would be created.
-The executive branch would carry out the laws. The judicial branch would consist of a system of courts to interpret the law.
-Randolph proposed that Congress appoint three people to serve jointly as chief executive. Others objected. A single executive, they said, could act more quickly when urgent action was required.
-Eventually, the delegates voted to have one person, called the president, serve as executive.
-The Virginia Plan called for a change in the composition of Congress. Rather than a single legislative body, it would consist of two parts- a lower house and an upper house.
-Delegates argued long and hard about methods of choosing members of the two houses. Roger Sherman of Connecticut said the people “should have as little to do” with the selection process as possible because they can be misled.
-On the other hand, James Wilson of Pennsylvania warned against shutting the people out of the process.
III. The Great Compromise
-One part of the Virginia plan nearly tore the convention apart. The plan called for representation based on population.
-The more people a state had, the more seats it would have in each house. Naturally, this idea drew support from big states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
-The smaller states strongly opposed this idea. They wanted each state to have the same number of votes in Congress, as was the case under the Articles of Confederation.
-On June 15, William Paterson of New Jersey introduced a modified plan on behalf of the small states. This New Jersey Plan stood in sharp contrast to the Virginia Plan.
-It called for a single house of Congress, with equal representation for each state. The plan also expanded the powers of Congress to raise money and regulate commerce.
-Finally, Roger Sherman of Connecticut worked out a compromise that he hoped would satisfy both the large and small states.
-On July 16, 1787, delegates narrowly voted to accept Sherman’s proposals, which became known as the Great Compromise.
-The key to Sherman’s plan was a two-house Congress. To please the large states, the lower house, called the House of Representatives, was to be based on population. Bigger states would thus have more votes. Representative would be chosen by a vote of the people to serve two-year terms.
-To please the small states, each state would have two seats in the upper house or Senate. State legislatures would choose senators, who would serve six-year terms.
-the Great Compromise was a vital step in creating a new Constitution. Now, small-state delegates were willing to support a strong central government.
IV. Debates Over Slavery
-Other issues also divided the delegates-none more so than the question of slavery. The issue touched off bitter debates between northerners and southern.
-Southern delegates said that enslaved people should be counted in calculating how many representatives a state should have in Congress. Northern delegates said that because slaves could not vote, they should not be counted toward a state’s representation.
-Finally, Congress approved a plan called the Three-Fifths Compromise. Each enslaved person would be counted as three-fifths of a free person.
-The Three-Fifths Compromise was a gain for the South, which got more seats in the House. Northern delegates reluctantly agreed in order to keep the South in the Union.
-The Three-Fifths Compromise was a blow to African Americans. It helped preserve slavery in the new Constitution by making a distinction between “free persons” and “all other persons.”
-The Compromise was finally overturned when slavery was banned in 1865.
-Some northern delegates wanted to ban the buying and selling of people anywhere in the country. Southern delegates protested that a ban would ruin the South’s economy.
-Once again a compromise was reached. Ships would be allowed to bring enslaved people into the United States for a period of 20 years. After 1808, Congress could bar the importation of enslaved people. But the slave trade within the United States was not affected.
V. A New Constitution
-After many more weeks of debate, the delegates agreed on all terms.
-Gouverneur Morris, a gifted writer, was largely responsible for writing the Preamble, or introduction.
-The Preamble highlights a major difference between the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation.
-The Articles were just a pact between separate states. By contrast, the Constitution opens with the words, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,… do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
-The Constitution thus claims to take its authority from the people rather than from the states.
-Once the Constitution had been signed, secrecy ended. Public debates began. These debates would stretch over 10 months. And, as the Constitution’s supporters soon learned, the battle for approval would be hard-fought and bitter.
Section 3: Debating the Constitution
- I. Federalists Versus Antifederalists
-The original purpose of the 1787 convention had been to revise the Articles of Confederation. Instead, the delegates produced an entirely new frame of government.
-The convention had a set process for states to ratify, or approve, the Constitution. Each state was to hold a convention. The Constitution would go into effect once it was ratified by nine states.
-Supporters of the new Constitution called themselves Federalists because they favored a strong federal, or national government.
-James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay published the Federalist Papers, a series of 85 newspaper essays in support of the Constitution.
-At the heart of the Federalist position was the need for a stronger central government. For the union to last, they argued, the national government had to have power denied to it under the Articles of Confederation, including the power to enforce the laws.
-Opponents of ratification were called Antifederalists. Leading Antifederalists such as George Mason and Patrick Henry of Virginia, agreed that the Articles of Confederation were not strong enough. However, they felt the Constitutional Convention had gone too far.
-Antifederalists were not all united in their reasons for opposing the Constitution. Some of their most frequent arguments included:
- Antifederalists argued that the Constitution dangerously weakened the state governments. They feared that a too-strong central government, like that of England, would wipe out state power and individual freedom.
-Some Antifederalists pointed out that the proposed Constitution offered no protection for basic freedoms. Unlike the constitutions of many states, it had no bill of rights.
Another objection was that the Constitution provided for a president who could be reelected again and again. Said Henry, “Your President may easily become a king.”
- II. The Ratification Debate
-The debate between Federalists and Antifederalists heated up as states held their ratification conventions. Without the approval of nine states, the Constitution would not go into effect.
-Delaware acted first. Its convention unanimously approved the Constitution on December 7, 1787. Pennsylvania, New jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut quickly followed.
-Antifederalists hoped to win in Massachusetts. Opposition to the Constitution was strong in the rural areas from which Shay’s Rebellion had drawn its strength. Only a major campaign by Constitution supporters won ratification by the state.
-All eyes moved to Virginia. By then, Maryland and South Carolina had ratified, which made a total of eight state ratifications. But if large and powerful Virginia rejected the pact, New York and other remaining states might do so, too.
-Patrick Henry led the attack on the Constitution in Virginia. James Madison supported the Constitution and warned of the possible breakup of the Union.
-In the end, the Federalist’s view narrowly won out. Virginia’s convention approved the Constitution by a vote of 89 to 79.
-Meanwhile, in June 1788-whille Virginia was still debating-New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify. The Constitution could now go into effect.
-In time, New York and North Carolina followed. Finally, in May 1790, Rhode Island became the last of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution.
-On July 4, 1788, Philadelphia celebrated the ratification of the Constitution with a huge parade.
-Benjamin Rush, a strong supporter of the Constitution, wrote to a friend, “Tis done. We have become a nation.”
- III. The Bill of Rights
-Once the ninth state had ratified the Constitution, Congress took steps to prepare for a new government. George Washington was elected the first President, with John Adams as Vice President.
-During the debate on the Constitution, many states had insisted that bill of rights be added. This became one of the first tasks of the new Congress that met in March 1789.
-The Framers had provided a way to amend the Constitution. They wanted to make the Constitution flexible enough to change. But they did not want changes made lightly. So, they made the process fairly difficult.
-In 1789, the first Congress passed a series of amendments. By December 1791, three fourths of the states had ratified 10 amendments. These amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.
-the Bill of Rights aims to protect people against abuses by the federal government. Many of them came out of the colonists struggle with Britain.
-The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, speech, and the press. The Second Amendment deals with the right to bear arms. The Third Amendment bars Congress from forcing citizens to keep troops in their homes, as Britain had done.
-The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches of their homes or seizure of their property. Amendments Five through Eight protect citizens who are accused of crimes and brought to trial.
-The last two Amendments limit the power of the federal government to those that are granted in the Constitution.